The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

NEWPORT, May 13.

A very severe flash of lightning, attended with a tremendous clap of thunder, on Thursday morning last, struck one of the chimneys of a house inhabited by Mr. Joseph Taylor, standing by itself south-easterly, at about half a mile's distance from the compact part of the town—the top with the partitions in the chimney, was beat into the body and fell to the lower floor—Mr. Taylor's wife was sitting near the hearth with a child in her lap, and a girl just by her, with another child in hers—one of Mrs. Taylor's shoes was torn in pieces (she had no buckles in them) off her foot, which was so burnt as to be blistered,—the lightning having apparently passed through the heel, a hole being made therein about as large as might be pierced with a double ten gimlet—the girl and children were not injured in the least. Mr. Taylor himself, who was sitting near the window, had both his shoes also torn off that the upper leather was separated from the soles, and one of his buckles slightly melted. A table in the room was overturned and a candle stand had its legs broken—two large holes were made through the floor into the cellar, and two glass windows in the room, together with the ashes, were stove to pieces and carried to a considerable distance from the house—there was a small iron chain hanging in the chimney within about six inches of the hearth. A hen sitting on her nest in a closet near the chimney was killed, and a number of eggs under her, broken to pieces and scattered about.